December 2012: Movie Review Literature – Bad Movies We Love!

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The holiday season is the perfect time to sit back with loved ones and spend time in each other’s company. What better way to do that than to heat up some hot chocolate, bake a batch of cookies, and watch a gloriously bad movie on TV!

It’s easy to read about the classics, the Oscar winners, the 100 best films of all time, but this featured collection brings your attention to movies many of us might not consider watching. There is a certain appeal to a so-called "rotten tomato", a movie considered so bad you just have to see it for yourself. All of these book titles are a fun read - a humorous take on those films some think are a waste of time. But if two or more of these books happen to list the same movie then you know it’s got to be so bad it just might be good!

The Good, the Bad, and the God-Awful - Kurt Loder (791.43 L821)

Kurt Loder of MTV’s “Week in Rock” fame transitioned into writing movie reviews for the network in 2004. This compilation of his best reviews mixes serious discussions about big name foreign films like The Girl… trilogy with more sarcastic critiques, such as, this comment about the film Hannibal Rising, "If this picture were a little more ludicrous, just a shade more inane, it might be fun to watch."

The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst - John Wilson (REF 791.43 W74)

The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation celebrates the anti-Oscars on the eve of the Academy Award event and honors those who made exceptionally awful movies with a golden “Razzie”. This movie guide lists all of the Razzie nominees and winners since the award’s inception (1980) offering thoughts on who’s responsible for the mess and why. Each entry quotes choice lines of terrible dialogue and directs viewers to the precise viewing chapter of noteworthy awfulness.

Your Movie Sucks - Roger Ebert (791.43 E16y)

Probably one of the better known movie critics of all time, Roger Ebert pulls no punches with his second take on movies he rates 2 stars or lower. Even an award winning columnist such as Ebert can’t resist the urge to dig into the ridiculousness of some of the films. Regarding the Keanu Reeves/Charlize Theron movie Sweet November, Ebert writes “Will there be a scene where Sara says ‘Go Away! I don’t want you to see me like this!’ Do iguanas like papayas?” He admits he had fun writing many of these reviews but also concedes he was angry at times as we often are after sitting through some of these low star movies.

This book, by journalist Joe Queenan, is a compilation of essays written for Movieline magazine and strikes a hilarious balance between biting wit and thoughtful insights into why we enjoy (or hate) the movies we watch. He also takes time to analyze audience reactions and really does spend a chapter discussing how the audience responds when he heckles the screen during a viewing of Alive among other films.